When it comes to holding down a job and keeping the rising price of food products in check, South Africa fails pretty badly.

So much so, in fact, we’re sitting in third last place on the misery index – the same spot we had in March of last year.

The Bloomberg Misery Index is computed by adding inflation to the unemployment rate, and while it gives Thailand a score of 1.11% – the least miserable of the 74 economies surveyed – South Africa lands on the index with 32.9%. Fin24 dishes out the rest of the spots:

Singapore and Japan are close runner ups, with 1.40% and 2.70%, respectively. The U.K. ranks the 17th least miserable country while the U.S. takes 21st place. China follows closely in 23rd spot.

Here’s a graph showing just how we stand in comparison.

Unsurprisingly, Venezuela is at the other end of the scale as plunging oil revenues have led to a chronic shortage of food and medicine, with inflation currently running at 181 percent.

Landing on the graph with an index of 188.2 percent, the “South American country is easily the world’s most miserable place”. It is followed by Bosnia with 48.97 %.

Crack a smile South Africa, at least we might be seeing the back of a political leader or two in the months to follow.

[source:fin24]